and there a church of a new type is
meeting manfully these various needs. It has set itself first to
answer the question whether the church is a real religious force in
the community, and what method may best be used to energize the
countryside more effectually for moral and religious ends. Old forms
or times of worship have needed changing, or an innovating individual
has taken a hand temporarily. Then it has faced the practical problem
of religious education. Most churches maintain a Sunday-school and a
Woman's Missionary or Aid Society. Certain of them have young people's
organizations, and a few have organized men's classes or clubs. Each
of these groups goes on its own independent course. There is no
attempt to correlate the studies with which each concerns itself, and
there is much waste of effort in holding group sessions that
accomplish nothing. The new church directors simplify, correlate, and
systematize all the educational work that is being attempted, improve
courses of study and methods of teaching, and propose to all concerned
the attainment of certain definite standards. In the third place, the
new rural church adopts for itself a well-considered programme of
community service. Its opportunity is unlimited, but its efforts are
not worth much unless it approaches the subject intelligently, with a
knowledge of local conditions, of its own resources, and of the
methods that have been used successfully in other similar localities.
Nothing less than these three tasks of investigation, education, and
service belong to every church; toward this ideal is moving an
increasing number of churches in the country.

READING REFERENCES

BUTTERFIELD: _The Country Church and the Rural Problem._

FISKE: _The Challenge of the Country._

WILSON: _The Church of the Open Country._

NESMITH: Chapter on "The Rural Church" in _Social Ministry._

HART: _Educational Resources of Village and Rural Communities_,
pages 176-196.

_Report of Country Life Commission_, 1908.

CHAPTER XXIV

A NEW TYPE OF RURAL INSTITUTION

169. =A New Type of Institution.=--The rural community everywhere is
in need of a new social institution. Those which exist have been
individualistic in purpose and method and only incidentally have been
socially constructive. The school has existed to make individuals
efficient intellectually, that they might be able to struggle
successfully for existence. The church has existed